Odds and Ends

A few odds and ends to post:

The Met has (finally) acquired the Gilman Paper Company's massive photo collection. The NY Times' reports its value at an estimated $100 million. Director de Montebello describes the Met's 19th C. collection as now "untouchable". Even more reason that the Met is my preferred photo museum in town. The Diane Arbus retrospective has opened there, reviewed by Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker and though I'm vaguely disinterested in Arbus and this show, I'll probably go anyway.

Fraser Gallery's "DC Art News" is hyping its Lida Moser show in a nice post. The show opens tomorrow.

I ran across this Business Week article awhile back about art-based investment funds. Basically you dump a huge pile of money into these funds, have to hold them for 10 years or so minimum, and in some cases get the right to borrow or rent the art in the fund. treating art as pure investment rubs me the wrong way, but the issues of setting prices and market transparency are interesting. Felix Salmon's "A Broken Market" (via From the Floor) brought it back to mind.